"When the body tells the mind it's done, it's time to give up, to shut down, it's actually at about 40%" - David Goggins, 2017

Let me preface this report by saying, once again, Rock fishing is inherently dangerous. We, as rock fisherman, understand the risks and take responsibility for our actions. This is a completely solo adventure and as such, risks were taken that would not have been had I had some company with me.

Enough locational data is supplied in this report to figure out where I am if you really want it. I will not discuss locations beyond what is posted in the original post.

I wanted to celebrate my 5000th post with a good one. I won't post every fish I caught because this report would be a novel. Instead I'll put up some highlights and the best fish from each spot.

I was fortunate enough to have a spare month, a swag, and a 4wd to enjoy the end of the LBG season on the East Coast. Having spent a bit of time exploring around some famous spots earlier in the year, I set my sights back on the south coast of NSW and got moving at stupid o'clock.

Three hours into the drive I was greeted by a stunning sunrise.

As I drove into the caravan park that has the best access to the spots I wanted to fish, I had forgotten that NSW school holidays are a fortnight after our own. Dodging scooters, bikes, remote control cars etc I found a nice spot on the fence line, and was setup withing 20 minutes. Swag life is a good life. I prefer an absolute basic campsite, swag, table, cooker and that's about all. Watching people as i'm arriving trying to setup and having made no progress 45 minutes later when i leave for the first spin session makes me smile.

Donutting hard that night (mostly because I was in such a hurry i forgot my spin reel in the car) I cooked a steak and setup for the next morning.

School Hols being on, I elected for a 4am start and to climb into one of the ledges I scouted last time I was here. And I mean climb in....

An aboslutely stunning bit of ocean ledge. The view straight down to the bit you fish is really really intimidating.....

I fished this spot and the surrounding ledges for 10 days, taking a couple of days off from the ropes to walk into the most famous marling spot in the world..

Some highlights include blistering runs from kingfish, a couple of really nice frigates on super light gear, and sight casting a mako that had chased a king in, having it take my lure, do half a dozen cartwheels then spit my Nomad out and swim off. But by far the highlight of the location was a 55-60kg hammerhead i brought up to the ledge and cut off. This is probably the biggest fish i've 'landed'. I thought about gaffing it then I thought about the logistics of cleaning it and getting up the ropes back to the car. Not happening.

If you're not into the LBG scene, the area pimps some really nice beach fishing and to my suprise, a PB squid.

This place is really really special, after 10 days I was sad to leave, but had my eyes on something a bit further north.

Spot two was a headland made famous in the 90's documentary "The landbased addiction"

Another stunning spot and absolute pr1ck of a walk in, this headland is probably the most sharky place on the Australian east coast.

It provided a number of highlights, countless bonito and big salmon.....

As well as half a dozen enormous sharks I dont' think even knew I had hooked them. The place is physically intimidating and beautiful at the same time.

Day one the swell was up so I was perched up high on a ledge mostly spinning.

Day two I managed some live baits, about 15 minutes after setting the first one up the rod buckled, reel screamed and 10 minutes later....

My first decent sized member of the tuna family. This is a Mack Tuna approx 9kg. Not knowing any better, I bled it out and kept it for a feed. I got two more that day which I released, all on live yakka.

As well as gaffing a nice long tail for another guy who showed up just as I was leaving and instantly hooked up. This spot, like the last one has a strong military history, with some abandoned gun platforms and constant aircraft activity making even the walks in and out interesting.

I only stayed here for a few days.

My final spot was further north again, this time the headland featured in Ron Calcutt's excellent documentary "spinning for spaniards", and that's exactly what I intended to do.

The final spot was my favorite, the walks, the scenery, the quiet camp grounds and phenomenal fishing all contributing to make the experience exactly what I had hoped for.

This is one of these places that you have to really, really want it to get the most of the fishing here. And you know I did......

Another rope selfie.... this is now becoming a thing. This ledge has not only a rope section but a section with pins hammered into the cliff that you have to climb down. Extremely good fun to get down too and exceptionally cool place to fish. It allows you to cast directly into the EAC and is the nearest headland on the East Coast to the continental shelf.

Day one I managed to get some baits out but the current kept slamming them back into the rocks..... still one got hit pretty nice....

Giving up on the baits, I decided to spin with surface lures and metals. After a couple of disasters, including a locked drag (not fishing for kings dougie, unlock your damn drag) and a spat lure, on first light of day 3 at this spot, just after my 3oz GT icecream hit the water, the rod doubled over, the drag screamed and I knew I was on to a good fish. Several arcing runs back and forth in front of me that had me scrambling across the rocks like a monkey and a fumbled but successful gaff shot, I landed what was by far the fish of the trip....

The walk back to camp at 730am past the guys who called themselves hardcore fisho's and were just getting started for the day was extremely satisfying.

That longtail went 14kg, and is my best LBG capture to this date. I spun hard for a spanish or another longtail for the next three days, but eventually fatigue got the better of me. I checked out a nearby spot at an Airbnb for one night on the way home, thinking i'd do that then head back to the south coast on the way. This is what 22 days of consequetive 4am starts looks like.

Cracking the sh1ts with the weather, I drove from up near Port Mac back to Melbourne on friday. Welcome back to Victoria Dougie.....have a months worth of rain.

All in all this trip was astonishing. I found out an awful lot about different techniques, and learned a lot about the art of fishing alone, camping alone and generally being entirely self sufficient.

I've packed the LBG gear away, and will spin the salmon and flick for squid until the water starts to warm back up. Next year I want a 10kg + king and a spanish on a lure.

16/17 Comp total 64cm

"If nothing easy is worthwhile, then LBG with lures must be just about the most worthwhile thing on the planet" MTF 2014

Dougie ... Congrates on 5001 posts and this is your best post thus far, I would love to come with you on your adventures, but I fear after getting down those cliffs I'd never get back up again ! Good job man.